


Light, Dark, Blue

by sixxon



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Bodyswap, Canon Divergence, M/M, Not yet anyways, Slow Burn, and a playlist in c7!, bodyswap au, but not heavy with emotion, it's partially a bodyswap, like kinda, now with art in C7!, plot heavy, shiro didn't disappear but they "beat" Zarkon
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-03-17
Updated: 2017-05-23
Packaged: 2018-10-06 12:05:07
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 8
Words: 17,273
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10334261
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sixxon/pseuds/sixxon
Summary: Keith gets hit by a strange blast while trying to save Lance. The effects of which leave Keith disoriented and confused while he finally begins to understand Lance a little more.





	1. Dreamers

Light.

His body felt like it was filled to the brim with light. When Keith had pushed Lance out of the way of the blast, he had expected to get hit, but not for the hit to feel like this. He could feel it springing off his fingertips like lightning and pouring from his eyes like liquid. He felt hot and cold and perfect and broken.

He could see the way Lance stared at him with unbridled fear. _Had Lance always been able to make that face?_ His expression looked twisted beyond Lance’s usual crooked grin, unhinged jaw, or his calm.

_Was he dying?_

He heard shouting, most likely from Lance, whose hands frantically clawed at Keith to pull him out of the beam.

“ _Keith! Don’t close your eyes! Come on, work with me!”_

_Did Lance’s voice always sound so hoarse before?_

Keith’s eyes, through no power of his own, locked with Lance’s. Time seemed to stop as Keith looked up at his own face through Lance’s eyes, jaw clamped shut, eyes wide and glowing with the same intensity that used to be in Zarkon’s blindingly purple eyes, only his were yellow, unrefined.

Lance blinked and suddenly the world was black. Suddenly Keith was falling down, down, down, and it was dark, so very dark and black, black, black.

 

~~~

 

Keith looked up at himself in a healing pod. _Was he dead?_ His head swerved away and his eyes closed. A warm hand placed itself on his shoulder.

“He’ll wake up soon, I’m sure the time will go by in less than a tick!” It was Coran. _Was he talking about Keith?_

He sighed, and for the first time he realized he wasn’t in control of his actions. “I know Coran, but…”

_Lance? Was he seeing things through Lance? A dream maybe?_

“You think you should have gotten hit?” A voice called from behind him, making him turn to face it. It was Pidge. “Then Keith would be standing here, feeling how you feel now, only unlike you he’d be stinking up the whole Med-Bay. Trust me, he did us a favour.”

_Hey!_ Keith thought.

“Coran, how long did you say it would be?” Lance asked, ignoring both Pidge _and_  a golden opportunity for him to brag about his skincare.

In Keith's eyes, that was just weird.

“Just a—”

Keith felt himself be pulled back from Lance. It was black again, and it was cold. Quietly, he heard the sliding of glass and felt warmth envelop him. He opened his eyes and everything was very blue. The blue floor he stood on, the blue walls inside the Medical Pod, the blue eyes staring up at him like they were seeing a family member again for the first time in a long time. Too long.

“Keith!” Pidge yelled, snapping Keith out of his trance. “How do you feel?”

Keith pulled his eyes from Lance’s and looked at her, “Uhhh, normal…” _I had a weird dream_ he though, but didn’t say. “How long was I in the pod for?” he asked.

“Just a day, and it’s a good thing too, now I can do a more detailed test on what that beam did to you,” Coran said pointedly. “The equipment should take one of your ‘hours’ to set up.” He explained while heading off into one of the storage rooms in the Med-Bay.

“I’ll let Hunk know you’re up, he’ll make you some food,” Lance said, face finally looking relieved.

Keith reached out and grabbed his sleeve, nearly toppling Pidge in the process.

“Hey, Keith, watch it!” She shouted.

At Pidge’s outburst, he let Lance go, “sorry,” he muttered. “Just…”

Lance smiled, albeit weakly, “you may get all the glory for saving me this time, Mullet, but next time It’ll be me saving the day.” He joked, though his words held less gumption in them than he probably intended. “Oh, and I’m fine by the way.”

The next sounds following were just the whoosh of the automatic door leading out of the Med-Bay opening and closing.

“He’s a little on edge,” Pidge explained. “He’s been up for nearly 19 hours.”

“What happened?” Keith asked.

Pidge sighed, “While you and Lance were checking out the distress call, Lance found that cave and, as Lance does, he probably touched something he shouldn’t have and activated that trap it made a huge noise, I nearly went deaf!”

“Probably?”

“The rest of us just heard it through the comms. Besides, shouldn’t you know? You were with him.”

Keith shook his head, “Lance went in first, I didn’t notice he was in there until I heard… the... the screaming? It was loud.”

Pidge shrugged, “does your body feel any different from yesterday?”

Keith rolled his shoulders and flexed his fingers, “better actually… lighter.”

“Well, you were in a healing pod for 19 hours.”

 

In the hour it had taken Coran to set up his equipment, the rest of the team, sans Lance, had gathered in the Med-Bay to see Keith, ask him how he was, and see what Coran’s tests had to say. Hunk, kind as he was, had made Keith a large plate of… something Keith couldn’t place as looking like _food,_ but it still tasted good enough, more than enough. Hunk had also mentioned that Lance fell asleep in the kitchen while waiting for Hunk to finish cooking. Keith agreed that leaving him there was probably best, though, Lance might disagree.

 

“Alright Keith, just lay down on the table and we’ll start off with a quick proton scan, shouldn’t take a tick!” Coran said.

“You’re sure this won’t hurt him, Coran?” Shiro asked.

“Course not! It’s perfectly safe, Altean’s need to get scanned once every deca-decim or so, Allura and I used it around the time we first woke up. It’s an Altean standard!”

Shiro cast a skeptical look to Allura.

“Shiro, please, it’s perfectly safe,” she told him.

“Is it like an X-ray?” Pidge asked, fixing her glasses higher up on her nose.

Coran quirked a brow, “X-ray? Is that some kind of Earth weapon?”

“It’s like a scanner where you can see a person’s bones,” Hunk provided.

“Yes, it’s quite similar to that!” Coran said.

Without another word, Coran pulled a large tube around the table Keith was laying on, tapped some buttons on the panel next to it, and the machine whirred to life. A bright light glowed blue from inside the tube, it reminded Pidge of a photo scanner the way the light moved.

“Holy Quiznack!” Coran shouted.

Allura rushed to his side, “what is it, Coran?”

“Well, Princess, you won’t have trouble finding Keith for a while, the amount quintessence in his body is massive,” he explained.

“Is that bad?” Hunk asked.

Coran turned to look at the Paladins, now including Keith as he had crawled out from the tube, “It would be bad if Lance was hit, he would have been vaporized! Keith, you were hit with raw quintessence.”

“So why wasn’t I vaporized?” Keith asked.

Coran shrugged, “seems like since you’re part Galran you absorbed the energy instead.”

Shiro pushed past Pidge and Hunk, “wasn’t Zarkon harvesting quintessence before we fought him? He was using it for his super weapons.”

“I don’t think that’s all that he used it for,” Allura interjected. “Keith you said they were also refining it, right?”

“Yeah, they were turning it purple or something.”

Pidge laughed, “why does everything Galran have to be purple?”

Allura ignored her, “I think that’s what Zarkon had been using to keep himself alive for so long. Raw quintessence is what sustains the life of planets, of everything really, some beings can absorb it, though not a lot of it at once. If Zarkon found a way to refine it for better absorption, it’s no wonder he lived for all those years.”

“Why go to all the trouble though?” Shiro asked. “Isn’t it hard to get?”

“It extends life energy,” Coran piped up, “with enough of it, you could become immortal, though you would need a constant supply. Many life forms also use it as a food source, though usually they only absorb enough to fill their bellies!”

“So, what about me?” Keith asked. “I was still hungry when I woke up, so what? Will I just live longer?”

“Hard to say, you _are_ part human after all.”  

“For now, Keith, maybe you just need to get some sleep,” Shiro said, turning to Keith.

“But—”

“Sleep, Keith, Coran and I will check the scan for anything else. We’ll wake you if we find anything urgent,” Allura said with a smile.

 

~~

 

“Lance, Lance wake up, you’ll get muscle pain like that.”

_Hunk?_ Keith thought, why was he calling him lance?

Lance grumbled, but picked his face up off the cool countertop and turned his eyes to Hunk.

“Did I fall asleep?”

Hunk rolled his eyes, “while you were out, Coran scanned Keith’s… I’m not sure what, like an x-ray for mystical stuff,” he said, wiggling his fingers like he was casting a spell.

“Why didn’t you wake me!” Lance exclaimed, hopping up off the stool. Keith suddenly felt how dizzy that made Lance.

Hunk steadied Lance, making him sit back down, “whoa, slow down buddy, Keith’s asleep already.”

Lance sighed, “are you gonna tell me what happened?”

Hunk pulled up a stool and sat across from Lance. “Apparently what Keith pushed you out of the way from was raw quintessence. Coran said that, since you’re human, you would have been vaporized.”

Keith felt Lance’s heart pound in his chest.

_Thump, thump, thump._

Hunk placed a hand on Lance’s shoulder, “as far as we know, Keith is fine, apparently because he’s part Galra he absorbed it instead of… well, dying.”

Lance nodded, but still, his heart pounded uneasily. Lance’s eyes darted all around Hunk’s face, Keith could tell it was from his unease, and by not tearing them completely away from Hunk’s face, his unease wouldn’t be noticed.

Of course, Hunk was Hunk, and Keith didn’t think anyone on this ship knew Lance better than him.

“Are you going to be okay, Lance?”

Lance faltered, slouching his back and heaving out a large sigh from being caught. “Yeah, I’m just worried about Keith.”

The words made Keith’s mind reel. Sure, they were teammates, but Keith never though Lance would even admit to something like that unless he or Lance was dying or dead.

Lance gave Hunk a quick look that made Hunk raise his hands, “I won’t tell,” Hunk said, “just get some sleep in an actual bed for a while okay?”

“Thanks buddy,” Lance said sincerely.


	2. Lightning

Lance walked back to his room through the dimly lit halls of the castle. He felt watched somehow, even though he knew everyone was either sleeping, or in Allura and Coran’s case, trying to see if anything was wrong with Keith. From what Hunk had told him, Keith seemed to be okay, which made Lance feel better on a surface level, but no one but lance had seen the way Keith looked when he was inside that beam.

Keith had practically _oozed_ golden light in those moments. It almost felt like it was a dream. The way Keith’s body had felt electric in his hands, which if he was being honest, still stung a little, they were slightly scarred and cracking from what had hit Keith. He guessed Coran was right, if Keith hadn’t been so _impulsive_ like he _always_ was, Lance would be gone. He would’ve never seen his family back on Earth again, nor would he ever see his family here in space again either.

But, Keith could have died too.

Keith, who was hot headed, irrational, stab-first-ask-questions-later, Keith who was practically begging for trouble with the way he reacted to things, would have died. Keith, who, not that Lance would ever admit it, pushed Lance to be _better_ than himself. Of course, if Keith actually knew that, Lance would obviously need to murder him before word could spread.

Lance’s feet stopped in front of Keith’s door. He was probably asleep right now. Lance should probably go back to his room, he could even see his door, right next to Keith’s as it had always been. But Lance burned with curiosity.

-

Keith didn’t know where Lance was, other than in front of a door, but he knew it Lance felt anxious. Curious, but anxious none-the-less. After Hunk had sent Lance back to his bed, Lance had taken a detour around one of the back halls of the castle Keith had never used before. _Did Lance explore the castle often?_

Keith felt Lance sigh and place his hand onto the cool metal of the door. Soon, Lance’s forehead joined his hand. The cool surface felt nice, Keith thought, Lance seemed to be feeling rather warm, which made Keith feel the same way. It was a strange thing to have a dream with a sense of touch, but Keith had had them before, odd as that was.

Lance took in a deep breath, exhaled, and then turned away from the door. Something in Lance told Keith that, whatever Lance was going to do, it was not the time. So it wasn’t until Lance opened the door next to it and crawled into bed that Keith realized it was his room that Lance was anxious about entering.

 

~~

 

When Lance woke up, his hands no longer stung from the blast Keith was swept up in, but the marks on his hands still remained, leaving his palms looking warped. He wondered if they would go away with time, the reminder of them stung his heart. If he hadn’t been so curious, if he had been more _cautious_ , his hands wouldn’t look like this, and Keith wouldn’t have been hit.

Someone knocked at the door.

“Lance?” It was Hunk, “are you awake?” He asked.

Lance shifted the covers off of himself and noticed he was still in the black jumpsuit he wore under his paladin armour, only the gloves had been singed off, leaving his hands exposed. He didn’t mind though, he got up and opened the door for Hunk.

“What’s up?” He asked.

Hunk pointed down the hallway, “Coran wants to do the same x-ray thing he did to Keith on you.” Lance was about to say something, but his stomach protested, groaning loudly. Hunk laughed, “maybe some food first would be better.”

 

~~

 

“Perhaps that locals on the planet would know?”

Coran scratched his chin, “You make a good point, Princess, but we never did find who sent the distress signal because of all that with the quintessence.”

“I brought Lance,” Hunk called out into the Med-Bay.

Coran turned to face them first, “great,” he said as he patted the proton scanner. “Now, Lance, could you just hop on in here?”

Lance nodded and walked over as Allura left, saying she was going to check for distress beacons. “This isn’t gonna hurt, right?” he asked.

“No more than a Peruvian bull hurts a quitlap!” Coran smiled.

Lance looked at him skeptically, “right…”

Lance crawled inside the metal tube, it was cold against his arms, he wished he hadn’t changed. Coran flipped the switch and the tube lit up and made a whirring noise. Near his feet, a bar of light was slowly creeping up towards his face. He closed his eyes as the light passed. When it did, he called out to Coran.

“Was that it?”

Coran poked his head into the tube, “that’s all, you can get out now.”

As instructed, Lance exited the tube and went to stand by Coran. “Find anything?” He asked.

“It seems like you absorbed some of the quintessence as well, though it seems to only be running between your brain and your hands,” Coran said and glanced down at Lance’s hands. “It’s not hard to tell from that scaring you’ve got.”

“Oh,” Lance said, “I thought you said it would have vaporized me.”

“Well, I didn’t think you got hit by the beam. Maybe my first thought was wrong?” Coran pondered. “Were you hit by a secondary blast?”

Lance shook his head and looked at his hands, “no, I tried to pull Keith out of the beam.”

“Pull him out?”

Lance nodded, “yeah, I thought it would blow him back, but he just… hovered there? So I went to grab him and try to pull him out but…”

“But?” Coran pressed.

“Well, it was weird,” Lance shrugged. “I couldn’t budge him, and then he looked at me and his eyes were all glowy and creepy and he just _stared_ at me before the beam stopped and he blacked out.”

“Who did what?” A voice called out.

Lance turned and saw Keith, leaning on the door frame of the Med-Bay. He looked like he had barely slept at all. _How long had he been awake?_

“Keith! Wonderful timing! How have you been?” Coran asked while he gestured for Keith to come closer.

“Okay I guess,” Keith replied. Quickly, he spared a glance at Lance, he looked confused about something. “I didn’t realize you’d be here,” he said to Lance.

“What, am I too hot to be in the same room with?” He joked.

Keith rolled his eyes, “I was looking for Coran.”

“Am I the hot one?” Coran asked.

Both Keith and Lance knew it was a joke, but Coran made it sound like he was serious, so Keith replied, “Sure, Coran.”

“What did you need Coran for?” Lance asked.

“Why do you care?”

Lance glared at Keith, “what, I can’t ask a question?”

“… no?”

Lance groaned, “whatever, like I care about your stupid question anyway,” he said as he left the Med-Bay.

“What’s his deal?!” Keith exclaimed, “I didn’t mean it in a bad way!”

Coran put his hand on Keith’s shoulder, “Lance is probably just stressed,” he offered. “What was it you wanted to ask me?”

Keith jolted slightly before he replied, “rather than ask… I’ve been having weird dreams.”

“Aren’t weird dreams a _normal_ thing for humans?” Coran asked.

Keith hummed, “I guess, but they’re… I keep having dreams that I’m Lance.”

“Lance?”

“It’s like, I’m Lance, but I can’t control my own body? Like I’m, it’s… watching Lance, but, not like, me watching him?” He sighs, “sorry, that doesn’t make any sense.”

“It’s alright, Keith. I’m guessing this is recently?” Coran asked.

Keith nodded and started to lean against the scanning pod, “yeah, I think the first one was first in the Med-Bay. Lance, or, I was looking at myself in the medical pod, feeling uneasy. You were there… I, I mean Lance, was feeling bad and then you and Pidge tried to cheer me, him, up.” He explained. “Also Pidge said I smelled bad,” he added, though it was more to himself than to Coran.

“When was this?” Coran asked.

Keith shrugged, “before the med-pod opened.”

“Keith, I think that—”

“CORAN!” A voice called through the castle speakers, “it appears that some of the castle defences are offline, can you come to the bridge and help fix them?” It was Allura, she sounded a little worried.

“We’ll continue this later,” Coran said, “maybe you could try talking to Lance about your dreams.”

And with that, he was gone, and Keith was left with more questions than he came in with.

What _was_ with Lance anyways? Did he always need to goof around with something important was happening? Couldn’t he read when the atmosphere was heavy? Keith didn’t get it. He also didn’t understand Lance’s inherent need to make a total ass out of himself _and_ Keith with his stupid “rivalry.” Keith never saw them as rivals, even if he did enjoy the competitive side to their friendship; if you could even call it friendship.

Keith shook his head and began to walk towards one of the upper decks of the castle to look out the window. Normally, he’d be going to the training deck, but when he was on his way there earlier in the day, Shiro had told him to rest for a few more days first. Thankfully, the elevator was _actually_ _working_ this time. Keith opened the door to the observation room and, to his surprise, Lance was already there, looking out the window of the castle. _Unsurprisingly_ , Lance had heard the door open.

“What do you want?” Lance asked while he approached Keith, clearly still annoyed with him.

Keith slouched, “Nothing, I was just looking around, why do you care?”

Lance groaned and poked Keith in the chest, “you—”

Lightning.

Keith felt an electric current run from Lance’s finger tips straight to his heart. In an odd way, it made him feel whole. Keith seized and fell to the floor. Everything was dark again, like how the beam in the cave felt. He was still awake though. Keith’s eyes whipped around, trying to see anything but black, there was so much of it. His chest heaved, there was a strange, warm pressure on his shoulders, keeping him still, _mostly still._ When his consciousness slipped, everything became light.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I hope you liked it! I'm still not sure how long this story will be yet, maybe around 8-10 chapters, but who knows. (Not me, that's who).  
> Come messaged me on tumblr @sixxon about stuff! I check the #sixxon tag there semi-frequently too.


	3. Understanding

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I hope you enjoy this chapter! If you wanna ask me anything leave me a comment or message/inbox me @sixxon on Tumblr!!

Everything was so light, including Keith. Once again, he was seeing himself through Lance’s eyes. He watched his body seize with electricity, fear pulsing through Lance’s body. Lance, despite the pain the energy that sprung off of Keith’s body gave him, picked him up. His arms burned with what felt like thousands of watts of electricity. Despite this, Lance cradled Keith and ran. Heart pounding, body screaming for him to put Keith down.

He ran as hard as he could through the corridors of the castle, screaming for someone, anyone. Eventually, Lance had made it as far as the bridge. The doors couldn’t open fast enough as Lance burst through them, effectively getting the attention of everyone there. Allura, Coran, and Pidge, looking upon them in immediate fear as the room spun.

Lance blacked out.

 

~~

 

Lance was the first to come out of the healing pod. When the glass opened, he was met with a relieved looking crew in front of him.

“Keith, what happened?” Pidge asked immediately.

 _I’m not Keith,_ Lance thought, but the words that came out were, “I… I don’t know, where’s Lance?”

Hunk, who was standing behind Pidge, pointed to the pod next to his, “he’s still in there.”

“How long—”

Allura stepped forward, “only a few hours.” She told him.

Lance was lost. Was he dreaming? Surely he had to be, he wasn’t in control of his body. Also Pidge had called him Keith. What was he doing before? He had poked Keith because he was getting on his nerves, and then… Keith lit up like a summer thunder storm; crackling, and bright, and painful to touch. He was seizing, and Lance had carried him to find help. In hindsight, perhaps carrying someone who’s having a seizure with the accompaniment of electricity was not the best idea Lance had ever had.

“Lance just burst into the bridge carrying you, bright as a supernova!” Coran explained, “when Lance passed out I nearly fainted myself!”

Pidge nodded, “you also broke one of his ribs because he managed to break your fall on the way down.”

Keith glared down at the floor. He didn’t remember anything about what they were telling him. The last thing he remembered was Lance jabbing him in the chest and then the pain that came after it.

 _No_.

He remembered looking down on his own face through Lance. He remembered the feeling of fear, of adrenalin, and the pain in Lance’s arms. Keith looked over at Lance’s pod and down to his hands. The skin of his palms looked twisted and unnatural. Keith reached over and put his hand on the glass of the pod.

“He looked quite relieved when he saw us in the bridge, but we heard him shouting first,” Allura said. “Where were you before you collapsed?”

Keith paused and took his hand off the glass to look at Allura, “the observation deck,” he explained. “I went to look at the stars, and Lance was there. I think it ticked him off that I found him. He jabbed me in the chest and then suddenly it felt like a current was flowing through me.”

“How did you tick him off?” Hunk asked.

Keith shrugged, “you all know that Lance doesn’t like me very much.”

Shiro put his hand on Keith’s shoulder, “I don’t think he doesn’t like you.”

“Then why is he only like that to me?”

“Eh, he’s just jealous,” Pidge said with a smirk.

 _PIDGE!!_ Lance internally screamed, _I am not!!_

Keith shrugged and turned to Coran, “do you have any idea if this has something to do with the blast?”

“Well, I can’t see any reason why it’s not,” he said. “When I scanned Lance earlier, the scan showed that he had quintessence running between his hands and brain. From what the pod says, it seems like there’s even more now.”

“How is that possible?” Shiro asked.

Coran shrugged, “The best I can guess is that Lance’s body is acting like a container of sorts for quintessence, only the quintessence has no where to go.”

“Wouldn’t that kill him!?” Pidge asked.

“I guess we’re lucky!” Coran said in a chipper fashion. “I suppose when Lance touched you, the quintessence jumped from his body to yours, took some, and then went back to Lance.”

“So now there’s less in my body?” Keith asked.

“Nope, you still have the same amount as before,” Coran replied.

Hunk stepped out, “still, isn’t that weird?”

“Indeed it is,” Allura said. “Any ideas, Coran?”

Coran scratched his chin and hummed, “it’s possible that humans can carry quintessence in their body, but not absorb it.”

Pidge looked confused, “isn’t quintessence the life force of all living things in the universe?”

Coran nodded, “that is true, but most species can’t hold or absorb _raw_ quintessence in their body, this stuff is quite powerful after all!” Coran’s eyebrows shot up, “well, there is a possibility that Lance isn’t wholly human either.”

“I really don’t think so,” Hunk said, “I’ve known Lance since we both started out at the garrison when we were 13.”

“So?” Pidge asked, “Keith didn’t know he was Galra until a while ago.”

Hunk sighed, “yeah, but I’ve met Lance’s family, there’s no _way_ he’s not related to them.”

The conversation stopped as the sound of sliding glass was heard and Lance was pulled away, suddenly feeling dizzy. Lance tripped on the lip of the pod and fell directly onto Keith, who had been standing in front of (and frankly, too close to) the pod that Lance was in. Keith and Lance toppled to the ground quickly. Keith made a loud noise in protest, but it sounded more like a bird squawking than it sounded like a noise Keith was able to physically make.

Lance pushed himself up, one arm on either side of Keith, and looked down at him. He looked pissed.

Immediately Lance said, “Wow, I’m just falling all over you.”

Keith glared at him, face red, though whether it was in embarrassment or anger, only Keith knew, “get. Off. Me. Lance.”

Lance did so, using the side of the pod to balance himself as he stood. He stuck out a hand for Keith, but Keith didn’t take it, instead he just picked himself up and brushed off the invisible dirt on his medical clothes. Lance rolled his eyes and crossed his arms in annoyance.

“Lance!” Hunk shouted as he pulled Lance into a bear hug.

“Hunk!” Lance managed to squeeze out, “you’re crushing me here buddy.”

“Oh,” he said, embarrassed as he let Lance go, “sorry about that.”

Lance turned to Coran, “I’m guessing you wanna know what happened?”

“Keith said it happened when you touched him,” Allura said.

Lance looked back at Keith, “oh,” he said quietly. “Do you remember anything else?”

Keith opened his mouth to explain how he saw himself through Lance’s eyes, but instead he said, “I think I had an out of body experience, I could see my own face.”

“Was it like those dreams you told me about?” Coran asked.

Keith nodded tentatively.

“Wait, _that’s_ what you wanted to talk to Coran about?” Lance asked, suddenly miffed.

It wasn’t that it was a secret exactly, but Keith felt that if Lance knew about the dreams then he might dislike him even more. Also, having Coran expose his totally-not-a-secret secret about Lance to everyone on the team was slightly unnerving, even if he hadn’t mentioned Lance’s involvement.

“What dreams?” Shiro asked. “Nightmares?”

Keith and Coran looked at each other. Coran’s face seemed to say, “go on, tell them.”

Keith turned back to Shiro and shook his head, “no, just, weird dreams. Like, being in another person’s body.”

“Is that normal for humans?” Allura asked.

“Not for me,” Keith said.

Lance snorted, “what, were you so embarrassed by your ‘weird dreams’ that it wasn’t any of my business earlier?”

“Lance!” Shiro chided.

“What?! He acted like it was none of my business when if he hadn’t pushed me out of the way he wouldn’t even be having those dreams!”

Shiro glared at him, “Lance, you’re being childish.”

Lance backed down from Shiro’s gaze and looked to the floor, “I’m not wrong,” he said. “Whatever, I’m going to have a shower, I don’t wanna keep smelling like a medical-pod all day.”

With that, Lance left, leaving Hunk to follow after to see if he was okay.

After a few moments of awkward silence, Coran cleared his throat, “Keith, I think I figured out something about your dreams.”

Keith tore his eyes away from the door Lance left through, “you did?”

“Well earlier what you described actually happened! Right before you came out of the medical pod to be precise!”

“Wait,” Pidge started, “so, Keith was inside _someone else_ while he was asleep? How in the world does that work?”

Keith shrugged and made a non-committal noise.

Allura quirked a brow, “whose body where you in, Keith?”

“Uh,” Keith paused.

Quickly, Coran took over for him, “Lance’s!”

Pidge burst out laughing, “so, wait… you… _pft_ , does _Lance_ know?”

Keith scowled, “ _no_.”

“Keith… for the sake of Voltron… you should tell him,” Shiro said, but Keith could tell he was trying _really_ hard not to laugh.

Allura, thankfully more mature, said, “Shiro’s right…” she paused. “You… should… _pft_ ,” She clutched her sides as she laughed. It only made Keith scowl more.

“Coran,” Keith said sharply, “do you know if Lance is experiencing the same thing?”

“Nope! But you could always ask him.” Coran grinned.

Keith sighed, “no way, do you even remember how much Lance _doesn’t like me?_ ”

“Oh come now, Keith my boy, I’m sure if you talk to him, everything will be right as that rain thing Lance told me about!” Coran said cheerfully as he started to push Keith out of the door.

“Wait, but, I—”

The door closed behind Keith, leaving him alone in the hallway.


	4. Something

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter is longer than the previous ones, I hope to continue this trend since my exams are almost over!!   
> Please enjoy!  
> P.S I check the #sixxon tag on tumblr, @sixxon is also my tumblr url ;)

Keith had barely managed to get his regular clothes on when the ship’s internal alarm sounded.

“ _Great_ ,” he muttered to himself as he started to put his armour on.

 

“What happened?!” Keith shouted as he ran into the bridge.

“We just received a distress beacon from Haplioah,” Allura said.

Keith took his helmet off, “the planet where Lance and I got blasted?”

“Allura says the beacon came from near the cave where all that quintessence was,” Lance explained.

Keith turned and saw Lance sitting in his own chair, helmet in his hands. Keith was surprised that Lance had managed to come before him. As far as Lance’s track record went, he was nearly always late.

Allura nodded, “I’m going to send both of you down with Coran to check out the cave, he _is_ the most knowledgeable about this after all.”

Keith looked to Coran, who was already packing a ton of things into the huge bag around his shoulder.

Lance stood up out of his chair, “wait, what if something happens? Who’ll check on the distress beacon?”

“Lance, you and Keith are paladins of Voltron, I have faith that you’ll be able to handle it. You’ll always have the comms if you are in need,” Allura explained gently.

Shiro stepped out to stand next to her, “while you three go see the cave, Pidge, Hunk, and I will check out the distress beacon, it’s near the cave.”

“Meanwhile, I’ll be staying here; should we be required to leave suddenly,” Allura added.

 

~~

 

Haplioah was a beautiful planet; at least, Lance thought so. The planet was decorated with flora and fauna of all colours and shapes, pools of clear, blue water that, in the right light, reflected the tiniest bit of gold. The climate wasn’t bad either. It reminded Lance of a warm summer day back on Earth, welcoming him with it’s gentle and warm breezes. The water was so clear that he could even see the nearly holographic fish that swam upstream; though, as the teams sharp-shooter, Lance’s eyesight was so good it was no wonder he could see the fish.

Lance kept his bayard close, but not ready. The planet was so calming that he was sure he didn’t need it. Better to be safe than sorry though. Lance looked forward to Keith, who was walking ahead of him and Coran. Coran was telling a story, but Lance wasn’t really listening, merely interjecting a nod every now and then. The sun shone through Keith’s hair, making it look finer than it really was, softer too. Keith looked back at them, probably just checking to see how far behind they were, but the way the light reflected in Keith’s eyes made Lance’s heart skip oddly.

 _Stupid eyesight_ , Lance cursed internally as he looked away from Keith’s gaze.

Coran seemed to have noticed, because he whispered, “something the matter, Lance? Are you still mad at Keith?”

Lance sighed and shook his head, “no, I wasn’t mad at Keith… I’m fine.”

“If you say so,” Coran said, “just remember if you need anything you can talk to me… or Allura, I’m sure she’d be happy to help.”

Lance smiled at him, “thanks, Coran.”

“Hey!” Keith called, “The cave is over here!”

When Lance and Coran got to the mouth of the cave Keith ushered them all inside. Lance immediately felt much different than he had when he was walking by the lake just outside the cave. His head started to pound right along the top of it. Lance could feel energy building up there, much the same feeling as he had when he tried to pull Keith out of the quintessence beam the first time, but he didn’t say anything.

If Keith felt anything, he didn’t show it, “I think it was that carving on the wall,” he said.

“It looks like a tenfolia,” Coran said as he leaned in close to the large, round, and intricate carving on the wall. “I haven’t seen one since my great uncle took me to Keraina when I was a little boy!”

“A tenfolia?” Lance asked, “is it a weapon?”

“If it’s a weapon, it clearly doesn’t work very well,” Keith said, crossing his arms.

Coran shook his head, “not at all. Tenfolia used to be heralded as sigils of fate to Kerainians; that’s why I’m so surprised to see one here!”

Keith paused, “fate… bringer?” He didn’t dare look at Lance.

“Indeed. The Kerainians believed that everyone had a predestined fate, when one wasn’t on the right path, they would be drawn to a tenfolia, this one even has their symbol of fate in the centre like the others I’ve seen,” Coran explained.

“Symbol of fate?” Lance asked.

Coran pointed at the centre, “The fish there, with the very long fins and tails.”

Lance snorted, “it looks more like a tree to me.”

Keith glared at Lance, telling him to be quiet with his gaze, “so how does it work, exactly?”

Coran paused to think, and then began to explain, “well, the Kerainians found a different type of quintessence, different from the one that’s usually harvested from planets. Actually, rather than find it, they made it. Their species couldn’t absorb quintessence, but they could manipulate it. They used to combine it with secline, a natural gas on their planet. The combination alters a persons fate itself. It’s a mystical thing that only Kerainians were known to be able to do, but they all died out just before the war began.”

“So what is one of these, tenfol-things doing here on Haplioah?” Keith asked.

Coran turned away from the wall to face Keith, “it’s possible that the Kerainians built a colony here before the war.”

“Wait,” Lance started, “shouldn’t there still be some of them on this planet?”

“Negative,” Coran replied, “considering how poorly maintained the tenfolia is, it’s likely they’re all dead.”

“Great, that doesn’t help solve the problem with our bodies,” Lance grumbled, thinking more about the knotted skin on his arms than the quintessence that ran through them.

“I’m sorry, paladins,” Coran said. “Though, this is most likely why Keith has been having dreams about Lance.”

“What do you mean?” Lance asked, he could practically feel Keith’s embarrassment from behind him. He felt it too, but more second-handed.

“Oh dear,” Coran said, “have you not told him?” Coran asked Keith.

Keith dragged a hand down his face, “ _no.”_

Lance laughed, “maybe I’m _dreamier_ than you thought?”

“ _Shut up, Lance_.” Keith sneered.   
Coran eyed Lance, “have you been experiencing anything similar?” he asked him.

Lance jolted slightly. He recalled the dream he had while he was asleep in the medical pod, though it could have just been a coincidence.

“…no,” Lance lied tentatively. “Besides, have you looked at Keith? The only part of him that’s dream-like is him still having a mullet in this day-and-age,” he joked.

Keith glared at him, “my hair isn’t any of your business…”

Lance sighed to himself, glad that he had successfully lied about the dreams.

Coran spoke, getting both Keith and Lance’s attention, “Lance,” he started, “do you remember activating the tenfolia?”

Lance shook his head, “the last thing I remember was looking at the cave from outside, then suddenly I was being shoved by Keith,” he explained.

“What about you, Keith?”

Keith pointed to himself, “Me, well, not much really. Lance and I were walking near the cave and I turned around because I thought I heard something, but it was just a rat-thing; when I turned back Lance was gone.” He crossed his arms, “when I heard the ten-thing make that loud sound, my feet just moved towards it and I saw Lance about to be hit.”

“Keith, I think Lance was _meant_ to be hit by the tenfolia,” Coran said.

“What?!” Lance exclaimed, “you said it would have vaporized me!”

Coran nodded with a hum, “yes, yes I did say that. However, now that I know it was a tenfolia, I’m certain that you wouldn’t have been,” he said. “I think the reason Keith has been dreaming about Lance is because the special quintessence is trying to return to its original recipient, and it’s taking Keith’s consciousness with it!”  
“Wait, Keith,” Lance said. “What exactly _have_ you been dreaming about me.”

Keith’s face twisted up, making him look emotionally constipated. Lance figured he wouldn’t lie though, for all the things Lance thought Keith was, a liar wasn’t one of them.

“Well,” he started. “I’ve been having dreams where I’m you… but, I’m not in control, it’s more like I’m observing the things around you from your point of view,” he said, face red.

“…oh, I see,” Lance said, face burning. “Coran, what makes you think I was _supposed_ to get hit?”

Coran looked at the tenfolia, “well, from what you said, it seems that it called out to you so it could correct your fate; even though it’s poorly maintained, it seems to still work.”

Keith’s head snapped up like he had an idea, “wait, could we use the tenfolia to fix it?” Keith asked. “If it corrects fate then it must realize I was hit by mistake. If we make it go off again, wouldn’t that fix us?”

Lance’s heart does a little flip at the way Keith says _us_ , but he pointedly ignores it to contribute to the conversation, “yeah, Coran, how do we activate it?”

“I’m afraid it’s not that simple,” Coran said, starting to explain. “The tenfolia chooses when to activate, that’s what made it so special to the Kerainians. It must think you’re both heading in the right direction in terms of your fate.”

“How can some dumb rock know our fate?!” Keith asked, exasperated.

“Oh, like you’re the leading expert on mystical rocks!” Lance said, challenging him.

Coran stepped between them, “now, now, I know this is very stressful, but I’m sure with time things will work out.”

Lance immediately felt self conscious about his arms. He knew that the mutilated scars on them weren’t something that could be fixed with time. Sure, they might fade, but the twisting knots and hills would always be there. What would he tell his mother about them when she saw them? Her son, returned from god-knows-where after being gone for god-knows-how-long, littered with scars that looked like they took months to heal. Lance could picture the way her face would twist up, the way she would cry, happy for him to be home, but sorry she couldn’t have protected him. She would feel guilty, Lance thinks. The scars would be there, and any time his family saw them they would remember the turmoil Lance must have put them through by going missing without a trace.

There was nothing he could do about it either.

“What about the quintessence?” Keith asked, thankfully snapping Lance out of his mental trance. “If it’s really trying to go back to Lance, why is it that when he took some from me I didn’t lose any?”

“I believe that you were _both_ meant to be hit,” Coran said as if it was plain as day.

“Wait, wait, wait, hold on,” Lance said as he stepped closer to Coran. “I thought you said the tenfolia called out to _me?”_

Coran put his hands on his hips, “fate works in funny ways, number 3! It could be that while you were _drawn_ to the tenfolia, it knew that Keith would try to save you from it, and with Keith stuck in the beam, you would jump back into it to try and pull Keith out.”

“Huh,” Lance said to himself, “so this thing knows, like, everything then?”

Keith rolled his eyes, “I doubt that… anyway why is Lance taking some from me if we were supposed to be hit?”

“He probably didn’t get hit with _enough_ of it.”

“Oh, was that part of the plan too?” Lance asked.

Coran nodded, “unfortunately because humans don’t quite absorb quintessence right you now have those scars,” he said, gesturing to Lance’s arms.

“Wait, these are gonna be all over my body?! My face too?!” Lance screeched.

“It could be worse, Lance,” Keith said.

Lance scowled at him, “what would _you_ know? You don’t even wash your face and yet _I’m_ the one who has to be disfigured for the rest of their life?”

“Hey! I wash my face!”

“Doing it in the shower doesn’t count!”

“Yes it does! And who said you would be disfigured for your whole life?!” Keith yelled.

Lance pointed an accusing finger at Coran, “Coran _just_ said that! Do you ever listen or is your mullet too thick?!”

“I _do_ listen! Coran just said you have the scars because of that thing,” Keith said as he pointed to the tenfolia. “He never said you would have them forever _or_ that they would spread!”

Lance balled up his hands into fists, about to lash out at Keith, but Coran stepped in. “Any scars you get in the future will be fixable,” he said, looking at the glimmer of hope in Lance’s eyes. “Unfortunately, it’s been too long for your arms and your hands.”

Lance frowned downwards.

“See, I told you,” Keith said.

“Whatever,” Lance grunted.

Lance shoved Keith aside with his forearm to leave the cave without thinking. Once again, the cave lit up with the quintessence both he and Keith shared. This time, however, it was less painful.

This time however, it was Lance who blacked out instead of Keith.


	5. Back to Haplioah

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for the delay, exam season is killing me both physically and mentally.

Keith was pacing. Back and forth, back and forth, back and forth. Honestly, if Lance was _there_ he would want to yell at Keith for being so impatient. Sure, he was glad Keith was worried about him, Keith was a nice guy after all, but really, he was far too impatient. Lance often wondered where Keith got it from. Probably the aggressive-Galra DNA from his mom. Not that Lance minded the extreme passion and quick thinking Keith exuded… not that he _liked_ it or anything. Not that he liked it _more_ when it was directed at him…

Yeah, definitely not.

“Coran it’s been an hour!” Keith shouted.

Coran gave Keith a questionable look, “Keith, you’re part Galra and you were in there for three hours last time, Lance is human.”

“He didn’t seem very human when he was glowing _yellow_ …” Keith muttered under his breath.

“These ears aren’t just for show you know, they heard that,” Coran chided him.

Keith raised his arms up in the air, “whatever.”

The med-bay door slid open, Keith turned and saw a sweatier than normal looking Pidge, “seems like we’re spending a lot of time in here lately,” she said as Hunk trailed in behind her.”

“What’s with you two anyways?” Hunk asked Keith as he pointed to Lance’s medical pod.

“Coran told me while you were asleep,” Pidge said to Hunk, “doesn’t a correction of _fate_ seem a little suspicious?”

Hunk raised a finger in the air as he pointed something out, “weren’t we all sorta brought together by fate, y’know, with the blue lion?”

“Indeed! But it seems the tenfolia,” Coran looked at Hunk, “the blasty quintessence dial in the cave that zapped Lance and Keith with fate correcting energy, though Lance and Keith were drifting the wrong way from the rest of us.”

“Is that bad? Like, if the thing didn’t zap them would we all be dead?” Hunk asked, nearly biting his nails.

Pidge rolled her eyes, “calm down, Hunk, I don’t think we would have _died_.”

“Well, it’s possible!”

“Not helping, Coran,” Pidge deadpanned.

Lance was pulled back into himself as he stumbled out of his medical pod. Being pulled back to his own body after being in Keith’s for an _hour_ was a little disorienting, Lance thought.

“Lance, you’re awake!” Hunk exclaimed, wrapping Lance up in his arms before letting go again. “What happened?” he asked.

“I bumped Keith with my shoulder,” he said, “the same thing that happened last time happened again, only I passed out.”

“Oh, speaking of which, Lance,” Coran started, “I want to try something with you and Keith.”

“Uh yeah, what is it?” Lance asked.

Coran put a hand on his hip, “well, since this energy burst seems to keep happening whenever you and Keith touch—”

“No, no way,” Keith interjected.

“What, why?!” Lance exclaimed.

Keith crossed his arms, “you just got _out_ of the medical pod, do you really wanna go back _in?_ ”

“How are we supposed to figure out what’s wrong if we don’t?” Lance said, exasperated.

“I don’t know! There’s probably a better way!”

Coran stepped between them, “now, now, Keith, Lance is right. The best way to test this is by having you touch.”

“Wait!” Pidge interjected, “I’ll be right back!” She yelled as she ran out of the medical bay.

Lance gave a look to Hunk, but he just shrugged. Not even a moment later, Pidge skidded back into the room.

“Okay, proceed,” she said, holding up a camera.

“Okay, I changed my mind,” Lance said upon seeing the little gremlin snickering behind her camera.

“What?” Keith said, “you and Coran said—”

“Boy! You sure change your opinions quick!” Lance hissed.

Keith shrugged, arms still crossed, “well, Coran’s usually right about this stuff.”

Lance groaned and slouched, “fine, what do we do, Coran?”

“Why are you asking him?” Keith said. “Here.”

Keith held out his left hand to Lance. Initially, Lance startled back at the gesture, but quickly readjusted himself. Back on Earth, he was used to having loads of physical affection, especially from his family, but having to hold Keith’s hand seemed like a foreign concept to Lance. For all the times Lance had slung an arm around Hunk’s shoulder or fell asleep in one of the common rooms with Pidge, Lance had rarely touched Keith. Keith didn’t seem to be physically affectionate, hell he seemed to recoil at it as far as Lance knew. So for Keith to stand in front of Lance, willing to hold his hand in a non-life-or-death situation, was beyond bizarre.

Despite his apprehension, Lance closed his eyes and grabbed Keith’s hand with his right one.

And… nothing.  

Nothing…

There was… nothing?

Lance opened his eyes slowly and looked up at Keith, who was looking at Lance with such wonderment that Lance had to wonder what he was thinking. Probably the same thing as Lance was. There was no electricity, no pain, just the warmth of Keith’s hand clasped around his own. Keith’s hands were smaller than Lance’s, Lance noted.

“Hmm,” Coran hummed, “I _was_ expecting some sort of reaction.”

Pidge snickered, “The only reaction seems to be the red on Lance’s face.”

Lance was about to let go of Keith, but Coran grabbed their hands and kept them there.

“Not yet, Lance,” Coran said. “Tell me, do you feel anything, either of you?” he asked.

Before Lance could answer, Keith spoke, “I don’t think so, other than Lance having cold hands.”

“Hey!” Lance objected.

“Maybe it has to be, like, consensual?” Hunk chimed in. Coran quirked a brow at him. “I mean like, maybe they both have to want to be touched by the other, or at least they both have to agree to it.”

“You may be onto something, Hunk!” Coran said, “though first I’d like to do a hand held quintessence scan while you two are holding hands.”

Keith nodded as Coran rummaged through a bag and pulled out a weird blue tool that looked like a remote control with a screen. The remote emitted a light and scanned Lance and Keith. The screen blinked and Coran let out a sound of amazement.

“What’s up, Coran?” Lance asked.

Coran pointed the screen to face the rest of the paladins. The screen showed the outline of Keith and Lance, there was a stream of yellow flowing between the two of them. Pidge immediately placed herself between the boys and the device, fascinated by the technology of course.

“Is this the quintessence?” She asked.

Coran nodded.

“It looks like it’s flowing between us,” Keith said.

“Right, but the thing that did this is a fate-maker right? So what’s it supposed to mean?” Lance asked.

Hunk shrugged, “it’s not like the rest of your life comes with instructions or a summary of events. It makes more sense that you _don’t_ know.”

“Paladins!” Allura called through the castle sound system. “There’s another distress beacon from Haplioah!”

“Did you not find the last one?” Lance asked.

Hunk shook his head, “we came back to the ship when we heard you passed out from Keith.”

“I better get my armour,” Lance said as he began to walk back to his room. Lance was stopped by a tug on his hand, the one that was still holding Keith’s, “sorry,” Lance said quickly as he pulled his hand out of Keith’s.

Lance left Keith there, flustered and looking down at his hand in confusion as to how his hand could feel colder without Lance’s there.

 

\--- 

 

Once again, Lance thinks that the surface of Haplioah is stunning; perhaps more so at night. The two moons of Haplioah - Osian, the red one, and Mu, the blue one -  hung gently among the stars. Lance almost felt as if he were back at home and looking out at Mars and Neptune through his brother’s hand-me-down telescope. This was better though, Lance thought. The colours were so much more vivid than they were through the lens of the dinky telescope in his back yard.

No one else seemed to be in awe of the sight. No one, that was, until Lance turned around to look at Keith, whose purple eyes shone with the reflection of Osian and Mu. Lance was taken aback. It was as if the moons of Haplioah themselves had mixed to make Keith’s eyes, he almost looked lonely.

Briefly, Lance admired him. Keith had strong cheekbones, more than likely a feature of his Galra-parent. His jaw was sharp, not in the same way Shiro’s or Lance’s were though, it was a gentle sharpness. Lance could almost picture another life where Keith could have been on the cover of the Times. He could see the headlines: _Daring Pilot Charts Worlds Far and Beyond,_ or, _Brilliant Fighter Pilot Saves the Lives of His Countrymen_.

 _Yeah_ , Lance thought, _something bold. Something that suits him_.  

When Keith’s head turned to look to Lance, Lance snapped his eyes back up to the smaller moon, Mu, with a new red tint on his face. He had really been staring too long.

“This is where the distress call came from,” Shiro said as he stopped walking.

Hunk stood up next to him, “I don’t see anyone,” he said. “I don’t even see equipment.”

Lance stepped up and looked around, “yeah,” he said, kind of annoyed. “What the heck…” he turned to Pidge, “hey, Pidge, how long ago did we get the call?”

Pidge stopped and thought for a moment, “Maybe an hour? It was a long walk from where Allura and Coran dropped us off.”

Keith hummed and stepped out in front of where Shiro and Hunk stood so that he could get a better look, “it doesn’t even look like anyone was here in the first place, look,” he said as he pointed to the dirt, “if the had something to signal us it would have probably been heavy or hard to move, if anything it looks more like no one has been here in years.”

“It could be like the spores from last time?” Hunk offered.

Pidge shook her head, “no, we would have seen it then. The spores were coded by the Alcari, meanwhile there’s only plant life of this planet.”

“There’s fish,” Lance blurted out.

“What?” Keith asked.

Lance scratched the back of his neck, “well, last time when we were going to the cave with Coran we passed a river, there were fish.”

“Lance, did the fish look anything like the ones in the tenfolia that Coran told us about?” Pidge asked.

“Uhhh, maybe?” He said, unsure, “there was only one fish and… I don’t know… the carving was bad, I thought it was a tree,” Lance shrugged.

“Wasn’t your best class marine-biology, Lance?” Hunk asked.

Lance nodded, “yeah, but I’m not an archeologist, I can’t read carving, that’s more Keith’s thing.”

“What makes you think that?” Keith asked, though there was no malice, just curiosity.  

“Dude, your house had a mystery wall like some conspiracy theorist! You live near caves with freaking carvings in them, do you not remember finding Blue?” Lance said, irritated.

Keith shrugged.

“Regardless, let’s look around,” Shiro said, “Pidge, you come with me, we’ll look over there,” he pointed to the forest nearby, “you three go look for more life by that river.”

Shiro walked off, Pidge trailing behind him.

“Alright, Lance, where’s the river?” Hunk asked.

“Not yet,” Keith interjected, “I wanna look around here first.”

Lance sighed, “I’m all for defying orders, Keith, but wouldn’t it be more likely to find people near water?”

Hunk nodded.

Keith ignored him as he began to poke around the flora near by. Lance wasn’t entirely sure what Keith was looking for, but he knew Keith didn’t know either.

Just as Lance was about to tell Keith they should go to the river, Keith yells, “ACK!” followed by a loud thud.

Hunk and Lance rush over to check on him, only for them to find that Keith had tripped over the exposed roots of one of the bushes.

Lance laughs. He laughs so hard that he thinks his lungs are going to spew out of his nose like milk. Hunk is laughing too, Lance can tell, but he’s doing a significantly better job of hiding it than Lance.

When Lance collected himself, he held his hand out for Keith to help him up.

Keith looked hesitant, but Lance smiled, “dude, it’s fine,” he said softly.

Keith’s face softened as he took Lance’s hand. Suddenly, the world was lit up in soft blue and red hues, twisting together to make purple the same way an aurora borealis looked back on Earth, not that Keith had ever seen one before. The colours took Keith’s breath away as he looked up to see the colours dancing in the sky over the backdrop of Osian and Mu hanging in the night sky.

Lance seemed to see it too, because he called out, “Hunk! Are you seeing this too?!” in wonderment.

Keith didn’t hear Hunk respond. They both turned to look to where Hunk had been standing, but he wasn’t there anymore.

“Hunk?” Lance said, panic rising in his voice.

As soon as Lance let’s go of Keith’s hand, Hunk’s image flickers with the lights in the sky, but his image doesn’t stay.

“Lance, what’s happening?” Keith asked.

“How should I know?!” he yells. “Wait! Take my hand again, maybe Hunk will come back.”

Immediately, Keith complies, but instead of bringing Hunk back, it only eliminates his image completely. Lance yelled out but Keith didn’t know what he said, other than the recurring word “Hunk,” being shouted over and over again. This time Keith lets go, hoping that at least the flickers might return, but they don’t.

Lance whipped his head around to look at Keith with panicked eyes, but as soon as he turned around, it chances to become panic and confusion.

Keith turns and sees a small group of beings standing behind them.

“Your friend is okay,” the one in the front said, voice crackly like a T.V with bad static.

The aliens are all shorter than Keith and Lance, but beat Hunk’s mass by a wide margin, they look strong, but soft. Their skin looked nearly iridescent under the lights of the sky. Their eyes are all imposing, all three of them, lined up in a row on what Keith assumes are their foreheads. Their arms were long, disproportionately so, they nearly reach the shins on some of them.

There looked two be two races, though they look very similar, the difference is clear to Keith. The ones in the back are all taller than the short and thick aliens, they’re thinner too, but clearly just as muscular. They too, have three eyes, except theirs are offset, two eyes in what Keith considered a normal position, and a third on the forehead. The main difference was their proportions, the ones in the back clearly had shorter, more proportioned arms, but the next big difference is the tall, proud horns on their heads.

“Really?” Lance asked and the alien from before nods. “Who are you? Where did Hunk go?” he asked impatiently.

The alien put his arms up, “I am Kolar, these are the people from my village,” Kolar explained, “Hunk didn’t go anywhere,” he said. “You two seem to have slipped through to our side of Haplioah, we sent out the distress signal, are you here to help us?”

“Wait, _the other side_ of Haplioah?” Keith asked, “as in another dimension?”

Kolar nodded, “indeed. You two must have been hit with the tenfolia, it is unfortunate it could not exist on this side.”

“Are you Kerainians?” Lance asked, eyes wide.

One of the taller aliens stepped out from behind Kolar, “we are…” they said, “I am Sela, daughter of Kolar,” she said to introduce herself, “are you here to help us?” she pushed.

Keith immediately nodded, “but the rest of our team isn’t here, how can we bring them to this side?”

Sela shook her head, “only us Kerainians and those touched by fate may come. It seems the six fates of the tenfolia have decided to divide the power it has granted you to send the two of you here.”

“How do we get back then?” Lance asked.

Kolar looked down sadly, “unfortunately only the power of the tenfolia can send you back, the six fates must agree to open the gate for the two of you.”

Lance sighed in defeat, “can you at least send someone to tell our crew where we are?”

“We—” Kolar started.

“I will go,” Sela interrupted. “I will tell your companions, what are their names?”

Keith stepped forward, “Shiro, Pidge, and Hunk. Shiro is in black, Pidge is in green, and Hunk is yellow,” he explained.

Sela looked down at her father, “I will be back soon,” she said before blinking out of existence.

“Please allow me to take you to our village,” Kolar said, turning around to walk there.

Lance and Keith followed.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I hope you enjoyed this new chapter, as I said, exams have kept me busy, but I've also had a small block with where to go from the last chapter. I think I pushed through it, so hopefully I can write faster now!


	6. Culture

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for the delay, I just finished exams lol. Anyways, I hope you enjoy this chapter! You can find me elsewhere @sixxon on tumblr, instagram, twitter, and snapchat.

Hunk was freaking out. Justifiably so. One second Lance is helping Keith off the ground and the next the two of them are flickering like T.V static before disappearing completely. Over the comms, he had tried to explain what happened, but then he just made Shiro and Pidge freak out too.

“Hunk, where are you?” Shiro asked impatiently.

Hunk Looked around quickly, “the same place you left us!”

“We’re on our way, just stay there!” Shiro instructed.

Hunk started to pace, “okay, okay, okay,” he said into his comm. “Lance and Keith are gone, where did they go?” he started to rant, “I mean, people don’t just disappear from thin air, right? What if we didn’t actually defeat Zarkon and he somehow locked onto Lance and Keith, zapping them out of existence… No that’d be crazy, right? I mean, what if there is life and then they—” Hunk turned around and came face to face with Sela.

“AHHHH!!!!!”

He screamed. To his credit (or lack thereof) it wasn’t _as_ high pitched as Lance’s could be, but that was debatable. 

“Please, do not be alarmed,” she said, “are you Hunk?”

“What? Who— How do you—” Hunk started, “are you trying to kidnap me too?! Where did you take Lance and Keith!?” He yelled as he reached for his bayard.

“If those are their names, I have done nothing to them. The power of the tenfolia sent them to our side of Haplioah. My people sent out the distress beacon.”

“Wait,” Hunk said, relaxing somewhat, “Lance and Keith are on the other side of the planet?”

Sela shook her head, “no, it is an alternate version of Haplioah, they are there with my father.”

“Your father? When will they be back?”

Sela smiled sadly towards the dirt, “His name is Kolar, mine is Sela,” she clarified, “they can only return when the six fates of the tenfolia wish it.”

“Oh come _on_!” Hunk yelled, startling Sela. “Sorry, sorry,” he apologized, “so what, they have to complete some task so that they can be sent back?”

Sela nodded, “most likely, that is it.”

Hunk gave her a look, “Most—”

“Hunk!” came Shiro’s voice from the woods, “what happened?!” he yelled in a panic.

“Who’s this?” Pidge asked calmly, but still on guard.

Before Hunk could answer, Sela stepped forward and bowed deeply, something hard considering she was so tall. “I am Sela, your compatriots, the blue and the red one, are with my father, Kolar, and our people on our Haplioah.” When Pidge and Shiro looked confused, she continued, “an alternate dimension of Haplioah, where we, the Kerainians, reside.”

“Kerainians…” Pidge murmured before looking at Shiro, “didn’t Coran tell us about them?” She looked at Sela, “You made the tenfolia.”

Sela nodded, “indeed.”

Before anyone could say anything else, Hunk stepped in, “she told me Lance and Keith can’t comeback until the six fates,” he looked at Sela, “it’s six, right?” Sela nodded. “Right, six fates of the tenfolia _let_ them come back!”

“WHAT?!” Pidge shouted.

 

\--

 

“—so you will be staying in these quarters,” Kolar’s personal guard, Tefan, said as he gestured to the door near them.

“Great,” Lance said, “and where will Keith be?”

Tefan quirked a brow, confused, “the two of you are the fate bound, we were only expecting one, so we have only prepared one room,” he explained, then added, “oh! But we are very glad you are _both_ here, it is a much welcome help to us.”

“Wait, wait, wait,” Lance said quickly, waving his hands through the air, “so we have to _share?_ I’m sorry but I just can’t.”

“What so bad about rooming with me?” Keith protested.

Lance groaned and dragged a hand down his face, “they probably only made _one_ bed…”

“Then you’ll just have to sleep on the floor,” Keith shrugged.

He didn’t mean it in a spiteful way, Lance knew that, but that fact didn’t stop Lance’s blood from boiling, “I will not!”

“Um—” Tefan tried to interject.

Keith crossed his arms, “Then where will I sleep?”

“The floor!” Lance nearly shrieked.

“Fated ones!” Tefan shouted, Keith and Lance immediately shut up. “While we appreciate your… _passionate_ _spirits_ , we are not an ignorant species, we have prepared two sleep mats for you.”

“Oh,” Lance said quietly as he stepped back from Keith.

Tefan bowed with one hand on his chest, up near his neck, “We apologize for our crass tone, we will retrieve you in the morning.”

And with that, he left.

Keith opened the door to the room, it was larger than he had expected. As promised, there were two beds on either side of the dimly lit room. Candles hung in sconces, glowing orange against the deep purple of the walls, illuminating the subtle pattern of the wall paper. The room looked like it was meant for an aristocrat, something Keith wasn’t overly fond of. In fact, he found it slightly disconcerting.

Lance however, as Keith noticed, was rather taken with the room. The jewels glittered in his eyes and the gold objects seemed to complement his skin with the way it reflected onto Lance. Lance almost looked like he belonged in this room, whereas Keith knew he didn’t fit. Keith belonged in dusty, cluttered, wooden rooms. Rooms that were aged and probably had mold problems so bad it was unhealthy. In that moment, as he observed him, Keith felt jealous of Lance. Lance seemed to fit in _everywhere_.

“I call this bed!” Lance yelled as he jumped onto the one on the right side of the room.

Keith’s eyes snapped away from him and to the wall on the left side of the room, “what do you think they need out help with?” Keith asked.

Lance snuggled into the bed, “who knows?” He shrugged, “but this place is pretty nice, and I’m sure it’s nothing we can’t handle.”

“What if it isn’t?” Keith asked. “What if it’s a Galra problem?”

Lance sat up and studied Keith, “I doubt it, how would the Galra get here anyways?”

Keith shrugged, “the Kerainians seem to be able to travel back and forth, other races could too.”

“You would have passed through sooner. Also didn’t Tefan seem creepy to you? He kept talking like he was a hive mind with the ‘we are very sorry we yelled’ thing.”

Keith hummed and leaned onto one of Lance’s bed posts, “it’s probably a culture thing.”

Lance narrowed his eyes, “maybe, but still, Kolar and Sela didn’t do it when we met them.”

Keith shrugged, “when we walked through town the villagers seemed scared of Kolar and the guard, that’s what I found weird.”

Lance nodded. People refused to make eye-contact with Kolar, some had even ran into their homes. “Yeah, but Kolar doesn’t seem like a bad guy…”

“For now let’s just sleep,” Keith said, “they’ll probably have us start working tomorrow.”

 

\--

 

 

Keith was the first to wake up. Fortunately, he slept well. He looked over at Lance’s bed and saw that in his sleep he had moved around so much he had practically become a pretzel with his blanket. Luckily the Kerainians had provided them with pyjamas and other clothes, but only Lance had elected to wear the pyjamas. Keith had slept in the black suit under his armor so that he could easily slide it back on in the morning.

Instead of waking Lance, Keith decided he should go find Tefan or Kolar to see what he and Lance would be doing to help them out. On his way he bumped into a tall Kerainian holding laundry. The Kerainian’s stature told him she was female, like Sela.

The girl squeaked, “our apologies, fated ones,” she said before she tried to scurry away.

Keith stopped her, “wait,” he said. “Do you know where I can find Kolar?”

“Oh,” she said, like she should have known what he would ask, “our lord is in the dining hall, eating his pre-midaral meal.”

“Breakfast?”

“Yes,” she nodded and then immediately placed the laundry on the ground. Keith quirked a brow. “We will take you to him,” she said.

“You can finish with that first, you know, I can wait,” he offered.

The maid’s expression briefly looked panicked, “We couldn’t possibly!” she stated. “Our lord has made it explicitly clear that the fated ones come first.”

With that, she left no room for Keith to protest further and led him to Kolar. When they arrived they found Kolar sitting at a large golden table eating something with his hands.

“We have brought the fated ones to you, our lord,” the maid said with a low bow, her hand placed up near her neck on her chest, just like Tefan’s had been when he bowed.

Before Keith could correct her and say Lance was not with him, the maid left and Kolar began to call him over to his side.

“Please have a seat, fated ones,” Kolar said as he gestured to the chair near him where a place setting was made, parallel to another on the other side of the table.

Keith awkwardly sat down, “I— sorry, Kolar, it’s just me. Lance isn’t here.”

Kolar looked surprized, “oh, is he awake then?”

“What— no? He’s- he’s still asleep, he’s just not here,” Keith explained, dumbfounded.

Kolar laughed, much to Keith’s chagrin, “then you must use ‘us!’” Kolar said through his laughter. “Outsiders are really too funny. He, your companion Lance, is inside you, right now your souls are one.”

Keith flushed awkwardly, he was the one who was in Lance when he was asleep, Lance would have…

Keith paused and then groaned.

 _He wouldn’t have_ , Keith thought, _there’s no way he would have told me_.

“Helore, please wake the other of the fated ones and bring him over for this pre-midaral meal.”

A short Kerainian posted by the door nodded, bowed in the same way the maid had, and left the hall.

After an uncomfortable moment of silence, Keith cleared his throat, “so, Kolar, what exactly are Lance and I here for?”

Kolar chuckled, “now is not the time for that, fated ones, after this meal, I have prepared a welcome for you.” He paused, “I have prepared clothes for you, however I see that you prefer this armor you came in.”

“Well—”

“I must persist and ask that you wear the clothes I have prepared; it is my tradition after all,” he said with a smile.

Keith nodded tensely, had Kolar given this impression when they first met? He seemed kinder yesterday.

Of course, the tension was dropped as soon as Lance had barreled into the room; Lance had a presence like that after all. Keith was nearly grateful to him.

After the meal, Kolar sent Helore to lead Lance and Keith back to their rooms, reminding them to wear the clothes left to them.

Keith was mortified. The clothes given to him looked far to revealing to actually be what he considered as clothing. Meanwhile Lance’s clothes, while still revealing, where at least more modest than what Keith was given.

“Lance, trade with me.”

Lance turned away from his clothes to look at Keith, “what, why?”

Keith didn’t dare look Lance in the eye, he kept them locked solidly on his own clothes that were spread out over his bed. “Look at this! Yours is probably going to fit me better.”

“Keith, buddy, it’s the same outfit.”

“It’s not!” Keith snapped and then shut his mouth, “yours has sleeves.”

Lance paused and pursed his lips, “fine, they gave me the red one anyways… blue looks much better on me!”

Keith held his sigh of relief inside and turned to Lance, “thanks…”

“The fashion sense here is pretty girly; these clothes kinda remind me of something you’d find in an RPG.”

Keith gave him a confused look, “RPG?”

“WHAT?! You don’t know?” Lance yelled. Keith shook his head and Lance sighed deeply, “it stands for ‘role play game.’”

“ _Excuse me_ ,” Keith hissed, “sorry I don’t spend all my time playing video games.” Keith waved his hand flippantly, “I’m more worried about why we’re going to some dumb party instead of helping out right away.”

Lance shrugged, “who cares why, it’s a party for us, we should enjoy it!”

Keith put down the shirt he was holding, “speaking of us,” Lance flinched, “why didn’t you tell me you where hitching a ride in my brain while you were asleep? You laughed at me for that when I told you I was in your head…”

“And I’m proud of that,” Lance said as he smiled tightly.

“Lance,” Keith said, leveling him.

“I thought it was weird, do I need any other reason? You didn’t even tell me until Coran blurted it out!”

“Don’t make it about me, Lance, I was _honest._ ”

“Why shouldn’t I?” Lance asked, “you pushed me out of the way of the tenfolia in the first place.”

“You didn’t have to go in after me…” Keith spat.

Lance crossed his arms, “you didn’t have to play hero, _like always_.” Lance sighed, “let’s just get ready and go.”

Keith frowned. He hadn’t meant to put Lance in a bad mood, honestly he hadn’t. What was his deal? What was everyone here’s deal anyways? Keith had no idea what it was, but something about this other side of Haplioah made him uneasy. Realistically, it shouldn’t, it was just as beautiful as the side the rest of the paladins were on, only more populated. Normally that would be a _good_ thing, but Keith couldn’t curb his unease.

 

Lance stepped out from the bathroom on his side of the room after he finished getting dressed. The clothes were surprisingly more comfortable than they looked, and when he saw Keith his anger at him had cooled to a subtle simmer.

Keith looked _good_. Like, _really good_. Red definitely suited Keith better than it suited Lance. It even matched the red on his face, only made more obvious by the thin translucent red cloth that hung over the lower half of his face. The outfit looked like it was custom made for him, Lance almost felt like the lesser of two halves if it wasn’t for Keith’s obvious discomfort with the outfit he was in.

Lance was used to showing skin, he practically grew up on a beach after all; Keith obviously wasn’t as accustomed to it.

Lance sucked in a large breath and slapped a hand on Keith’s shoulder to tell him it would be fine. However, Lance noticed Keith’s eyes were stuck on his bare abdomen, making Lance blush furiously when Keith’s eyes slowly trailed their way to Lance’s.

This would be a long day.  


	7. A dance for you and me

The ballroom was massive. It was full of golden chandeliers and glittering jewels that reflected their colours across the room. Despite the awkward feeling Keith had given him earlier, Lance knew that this party would be fun.

If only they would start the music.

Lance looked over to Keith who, aside from having sleeves, was wearing the same outfit as him, only in red and silver instead of blue and gold. The top only covered his collarbones, shoulders, and arms and the hem was silver. The sleeves of the top were large and billowy, but they were synched around his wrists so as to not get in the way. The pants they had been given looked like harem pants to Lance, albeit that they were capris length.

Everyone else aside from Kolar was dressed in the same, white, sheer looking robe that hung in a large hoop around their shoulders. Kolar had similar clothes to Keith and Lance, however he was dressed far more modestly in terms of skin coverage. In terms of wealth, he was practically covered head to toe in jewels and gold.

Kolar had seemed to have spotted Lance observing him because he smiled and walked over to join them.

“Fated ones, welcome to my party,” he greeted cheerfully.

Keith made a face, “right,” he said. “Thanks for throwing it,” he added, but didn’t sound very thankful.

Lance made up for it, lighting his face up with a huge grin, “it’s really cool of all of you to throw it for us.”

Kolar laughed, “fated ones, I alone made this happen, only the best for my fated ones.”

Keith glared, “we aren’t—”

Lance elbowed Keith in the side harshly and laughed, “speaking of which you never mentioned our job.”

Kolar waved his hand, “these festivities are part of your job, soon we will be serving the midaral meal, please eat as much of my food as you find palatable.”

Lance gave a small mock salute, ignoring the glare Keith was giving him, “will do, Kolar.”

As soon as Kolar had walked away, Keith spun on Lance, “what the hell, Lance! Why didn’t you let me correct him?”

“Look, we don’t know much about this planet, or it’s people, so I’d rather you not get antsy like you always do and act without thinking.”

Keith frowned, “that doesn’t make it okay for him to think he owns us,” he countered.

Lance sighed, “Keith, it’s not just us, he talks like he owns _everything_.”

“Exactly! How messed up is that?” Keith shot back, as if it proved his point.

Lance shook his head, “for now, let’s not freak out okay, _this_ is our job too,” he said as he gestured towards the centre of the hall.

Suddenly the music began and the hall filled with the sound of stings and flutes. Lance turned to where the band was playing and watched waiter after waiter trail out of the doors behind them, carrying silver platters with all kinds of different foods. Lance pulled Keith along by the sleeve to get a closer look, but stopped suddenly.

“What is it?” Keith asked.

Lance looked around, “no one else is taking food.”

“What? That—” Keith looked around and then turned back to Lance, whispering, “why isn’t anyone else taking food?”

Kolar approached them again, having seen that they hadn’t yet taken the food, “what seems to be the matter, fated ones? Is my food unsatisfactory?” he asked.

Lance flinched, “ah, no, just—”

“What about everyone else?” Keith asked impatiently.

Kolar instantly looked taken aback, almost as if such a question was unheard of, “my people? They do not dine with us, they will dine after the party, of course,” he explained, like it was obvious.

“It feels weird to be the only ones eating, y’know,” Lance replied.

Keith leaned over and whispered in Lance’s ear, “so you can talk back but not me?”

“You would be shouting,” Lance responded.

Keith pouted, Lance was right.

Kolar hummed, “it is simply not my tradition to have my subjects eat in the presence of myself, let alone my fated ones.”

“It’s not our tradition to ignore hungry people,” Keith hissed out as he gestured around the room.

“Keith,” Lance warned him.

“No, your other half is correct, perhaps your tradition can become mine for this evening,” Kolar said, though Keith could tell he only said it to pacify him.

Regardless, Keith said, “sounds good to us.”

Kolar nodded, “My people, my fated ones have requested that everyone eat my food, to please them, I urge you to begin your consumption.”

With a smile, Kolar left and went back to sit behind his table, which was on an elevated platform across the room.

“Keith,” Lance started.

“I got the job done,” Keith said defensively.

Lance crossed his arms, “look I want the people here to eat too, but we don’t know anything about this place, that could have been so…”

“Kolar seems to bend to every word we say,” Keith began to explain, “even though he considers us _‘his’_ on some level, he’ll do what we say.”

“That’s not a theory I want to test, Keith, you’re always leaping before looking,” Lance sighed, “let’s just get on with our job.”

 

\--

 

“So you’re the king’s daughter?” Pidge asked.

Sela was sitting with everyone, sans Lance and Keith of course, on the castle as she answered the team’s questions about Haplioah and the whereabouts of Keith and Lance. She seemed to look wildly out of place among the altean décor, plus she was postitively massive in both height and muscle.

Sela nodded, closing the third eye on her forehead, “he prefers the term ‘leader,’” she explained awkwardly.

“How long will Keith and Lance be there with him?” Shiro asked.

Sela looked at her feet, “I don’t know how long my father intends to keep them there,” she confessed.

Hunk flinched back, “I thought you said it was for the six fates to decide?”

Sela’s mouth pressed into a hard line before she opened it again, “that is the official title of my father… you are the rest of Lance and Keith’s team, Voltron, correct?” Shiro nodded, so she continued, “my father is a tyrant,” she said bluntly. “Just like all of my ancestors, he owns the people and their works, all of it, he wants for nothing and neither do I as his daughter.”

“But you hate him,” Pidge stated factually.

She looked at Pidge, “Not as a father. As a ruler I hoped for much more, for change.”

“Back when I visited the Kerainians on their home planet there were no political issues,” Coran said as if it were a question.

“We Kerainians are a private people, a select few ever learn about or political practices. When I was a child my grandmother ruled, she was just as much of a tyrant as my father, if more open about it. My father promised me that when he held the title of the six fates things would be different, but nothing has changed.”

“Then why get Lance and Keith involved? I mean, I know the tenfolia doesn’t exactly take commands with who it hits, but there is a reason they were hit,” Hunk said.

Sela shook her head, “while that is true, the tenfolia also serves as a window between the two sides of Haplioah. We have done this on all planets we have inhabited for the past few millennia to avoid the Galra. But every few hundred years the tenfolia grows unsatisfied and requires… an offering…”

Coran looked at her curiously, “then what about the fate making and fixing properties of the tenfolia?”

“Simply stories,” she said. “True that in ancient times that is the service it provided, but the inscriptions have since changed to satisfy our needs. Some properties may linger, especially in this case seeing as two have been selected, but the build of quintessence is a charge to feed the tenfolia, the cusp of feeding should appear in ten days.”

“What does that say about Lance and Keith then?” Allura asked, though she looked furious.

“Unless my father lets the cross over to this side, they may… end here.”

“What?!” Pidge and Hunk shouted in unison.

“Can’t you bring them back?!” Hunk yelled, “you crossed over to find us!”

“My power is unique to the guards of fates, we can only bring ourselves across, not others,” Sela explained sadly.

Allura’s eyes flickered, “so, you wish to overthrow your father and release our paladins?”

Sela nodded, “I sent out the distress beacon without telling my father, he was furious when he found out…” she said offhandedly. “Even though he is my family, and I love him, I want to offer my father to the tenfolia, that will satisfy it for a millennium at least, due to his status.”

Allura nodded, “can you bring objects between sides?” she asked.

Sela looked confused but nodded, “just as long as it is not organic life, it is possible.”

Allura smiled, “I have a plan.”

 

\--

 

The party was in full swing, or, at least as full of a swing as it could be since only a few people seemed to be dancing. Lance was one of these people. Keith stood by the waiters and watched as he attempted to get some of the other Kerainians to dance with him. A fruitless effort, but at least he looked happy. Admittedly, Keith was taken aback when he first saw Lance in the clothes they had been supplied. He wasn’t used to seeing Lance, or anyone for that matter, with such little clothing on. Sure, Keith had seen Lance when they were both on their way to that stupid upside-down swimming pool, but that was different. This outfit, despite covering more skin than a bathing suit, wasn’t showing skin off for practical reasons like swimming. It almost seemed indecent.

Of course, Keith was in the same thing, albeit with sleeves. He felt uncomfortable to say the least. Lance looked just as comfortable in this dumb Kerainian outfit as he did in his armour. Keith almost felt jealous.

_Almost_.

Keith was so absorbed in watching Lance that he hadn’t noticed that Kolar had made his way to his side.

“Do you not dance like your other half?” Kolar asked.

“I— he’s not my other half… and no, not really,” Keith replied after flinching from the jump scare Kolar gave him.

Kolar laughed, “tenfolia do not make mistakes about who they choose.”

“It was, well, it chose Lance I guess, but I pushed him out of the way,” Keith explained, “neither of us really… got _chosen_.”

Kolar shrugged, “then you will learn what it means,” he said. “You there,” he called to someone nearby, “bring the other half to me.”

The Kerainian nodded, returning shortly with Lance. Kolar clapped a hand onto Lance’s shoulder, causing Lance to nearly lose his balance.

“While you are here, it is my job to make sure you are pleased,” Kolar said, looking at Keith before he looked at Lance, “you will dance.”

“Uh…” Lance started, “I _have_ been dancing.”

“You will dance as _one_ , you are fated ones, but together, a fated one. You _will_ bond further,” Kolar said forcefully.  

Keith’s mind went blank. He had no idea how to dance. He looked over at Lance, who looked equally as stunned, though the emotion looked a little different. Keith looked down and saw Lance awkwardly extend a hand to him. With a gulp, Keith took it. When they touched, Keith sighed in relief. There was no deadly electricity, only the warmth of Lance’s hand holding his own.

“I don’t really…” Keith paused.

“Know how to dance?” Lance chuckled, “I know,” he smiled sincerely.

Keith learned something in that moment. He really liked it when Lance looked at him like that.

Keith nodded, shoving his discovery down for later, and let himself be pulled away from Kolar and towards the center of the banquet hall.

“I’ll lead,” Lance said, grabbing Keith’s other hand and putting it on his shoulder. Keith ignored the hard thump in his chest. “Just follow my steps,” he finished, “I’ll go slow.”

Lance reached out to put his free hand on Keith’s waist, pausing for a moment before putting it down on Keith’s bare skin. Keith ignored yet another hard thump in his chest when Lance’s warm hand landed on his side.

Lance immediately started moving and Keith’s eyes snapped down to their feet. Lance’s right foot moved forward, so Keith’s left moved back, Lance stepped right, Keith stepped left with him. Back, right, forward, left, back, right, forward, left.

“This isn’t so hard,” Keith said bluntly.

Lance scoffed, causing Keith to finally look away from his feet, “this is slow, and you’ve been looking down the whole time.”

“Well where else am I supposed to look?!” Keith complained.

“You look at your partner’s face,” Lance said blandly.

Keith pouted, but looked up at Lance’s blue eyes. Lance smiled, Keith could tell just from looking at his eyes; the way they crinkled around the corners and shone just a tad brighter than before.

Keith felt his face heating up, but Lance must have not noticed because he said, “are you going to stop glaring at me?”

Keith’s eyebrows shot up, “sorry,” he said, “uh, do you usually dance by the way? Back on Earth I mean.”

Lance quirked a brow, but then his face became serene, “Yeah,” he said wistfully, “I used to dance with my mom in our kitchen… kinda like this,” he paused, but Keith didn’t say anything so he continued as they danced on, “when I danced with my sisters it was always faster, but not with my mom. She would play old stuff like Jo Stafford and Doris Day; she hurt her leg when I was a kid, so she can’t move very fast,” he smiled sadly and Keith’s heart thumped again. “I hope she’s moving around enough… y’know since I’m out here… The physiotherapist said she needed to move around to help her leg, but she doesn’t get out much.”

There was a long pause while they continued to dance before Keith said, “Lance, I—”

Lance shook his head, “it’s cool, besides, you dance just as slow as her,” he grinned childishly, “you also have a lead foot like her.”

“Hey!” Keith protested.

Lance laughed, throwing his head back as he unconsciously pulled Keith closer. As his laughter slowed, he looked down at Keith with a small smile, “she would say that too.”

Keith looked away after a moment, face considerably warmer than he was comfortable with, “whatever,” he mumbled.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I hope you liked the art I made for this chapter (I can't with backgrounds lol), I've also put together a playlist of songs that Lance and his mom would dance to back on Earth :) https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLmNlOp5GR0DgZ3z1YxY4KcpxWOKClbOWh


	8. Spa Day

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry this took so dang long, I've been losing motivation for this story (even though I still love the concept) and have been wanting to write different AU's. I will do my best to finish this one first though!! The ending should be in the next few chapters or so (1 or 2, maybe 3 but idk).  
> Anyways I hope you enjoy it! as always you can find me on twitter, tumblr, and instagram @sixxon

A few days later, Lance and Keith were sitting in their room. Lance seemed to be relaxing, however Keith was digging through all the drawers in the room.

“What are you doing?” Lance asked, annoyed with all the noise Keith was making in his search.

Keith didn’t even look up as he said, “I’m looking for stuff… just anything that tells us more about this place.”

Lance rolled his eyes. It was like Keith to be paranoid after all but that didn’t mean Lance didn’t find this current endeavor particularly annoying. After the party, brief as it was, Kolar had sent the two paladins back to their room to wait while he prepared something else for them. He hadn’t said what, but Lance could tell the words Kolar said had put Keith on edge. Lance doubted that Keith would find much of anything. If the Kerainians had anything to hide, they wouldn’t have left their secrets lying around for them to find. So far, the only things Keith had found were bath supplies and a miniature flashlight. Lance didn’t interrupt him though. Even if he had, Keith wouldn’t have stopped looking anyways.

Lance heard Keith slide open drawer after drawer, open cupboard after cupboard, clicking his tongue each time he didn’t find anything. Lance had to give it to him, Keith was persistent.

Keith stood up quickly, catching Lance’s attention. When Keith turned around he was holding a leather bound book with gold writing embossed across the front cover. From where Lance was sitting, the book looked relatively new in the sense it wasn’t falling apart.

“See, I found something,” Keith seemed to taunt as he walked over and waved the book near Lance’s face. Lance snatched it from him, earning a loud, “hey!” from Keith.

Lance regarded the cover, obviously it wasn’t in English and Lance knew that the universal translator in their suit wasn’t exactly meant for the purpose of reading. Ignoring Keith as he asked Lance for the book back, he opened it and started flipping through the pages. From the formatting alone Lance would guess it was something like a bible. A bible seemed like the only thing that would be left to read in a room made for strangers, that’s what was left in hotel rooms on Earth anyways.

“Keith,” Lance started as he closed the book, “even if I give this back to you, could you read it?”

Keith’s face flushed as he said, “I could figure it out.”

Lance looked at him skeptically, “oh really? I didn’t realize you were such an accomplished linguist.”

If it were possible, and it was since it happened, Keith’s face turned an even deeper shade of red in frustration. Without a warning, he tore the book from Lance’s hands and took a few steps back.

“Hey!” Lance protested, “you almost yanked my arm off!”

“You started it,” Keith said mildly as he glared at Lance.

Lance dragged his hands down his face and groaned, “dude, I thought we were past this,”

Keith ignored him and instead changed the topic, “I thought we were here to do a job, not sit around and wait.”

Lance sighed. Keith was right of course, even if the change of subject ticked Lance off. Though, there wasn’t much they could do. Kolar had asked them to stay in their room until he came for them again, and by “he” Lance assumed he meant a maid or a member of the guard like Tefan.

“We can’t _do_ anything until Kolar tells us what we need to do,” Lance explained.

Keith crossed his arms, “then we should go and ask him what we need to do so we can leave!”

“Remember what he said when we first got here?” Lance asked. “You know the whole _you may leave when the six fates decide it_ , thing.”

“Then maybe we can convince them, whoever they are. This book,” he said as he pointed at it, “probably has the answers.”

Lance shrugged, “it’s probably like their bible or something, on Earth there are tons of different bibles.”

“Maybe, but it’s better than nothing.”

Before Lance could reply, there was a knock on the door. Before either of the boys could answer, the door slid open.

“Fated ones,” it was the maid Keith had run into earlier, “we have come to collect you and take you to the under to meet our lord.”

“The what now?” Lance asked.

The maid just smiled and said, “please follow me.”

 The maid took them down to “the under” to meet with Kolar. Lance was pleasantly surprised to see the “the under” was actually a spa… at least it looked like it was. Lance would recognize a mud-bath anywhere; the last time he went to one it was with his mom for her birthday. Lance had saved months of his allowance for the two of them to go, it made his mom so happy.

“Don’t you think this is weird, like, at all?” Keith whispered into Lance’s ear.

Lance shrugged and said, “we’re being treated well, even if it’s weird, it’s not that bad.” Keith huffed, annoyed that Lance wasn’t taking him seriously. Lance seemed to pick up on this and then added, “look, we’re paladins of Voltron, if something goes wrong we can handle it.”

\---

“Are you ready to go, Sela?” Allura asked as she handed Sela her bag.

Sela smiled, “I am,” she said as she looked up at Red who was sitting beside her. Allura had brought them all to a secluded part of the forest nearby Sela’s village. Sela wanted to make sure that no one would be able to see Red from the village, so she helped find a spot where there was enough foliage to cover the massive lion.

Shiro stepped forward, “bring them back safe, okay?”

“You too,” Hunk added, “you should be safe too.”

Sela smiled softly at the two of them, “I see why you are all paladins of Voltron… I will bring them home to you, and I will make sure they are safe.”

“Thank you, Sela,” Allura said.

Sela nodded back in a small bowing motion as she turned to face Red, finally blipping out of sight with Red in tow.

\---

Lance thought that the mud bath was absolutely spectacular. Keith, on the other hand, just felt like he needed to take a bath, he didn’t understand what a mud bath’s purpose was other than to make you feel better when you take a shower afterwards. Keith felt gross and sticky, but Lance seemed to feel right at home. Keith figured it was because he had felt out of place the whole time they had been in Kolar’s palace. Lance seemed to belong in a place surrounded by jewels and gold and, for some reason, luxurious mud baths.

A handmaid came over to their baths and then held out towels for them to take, signaling that it was time for them to get out of the bath, and Keith was more than happy to take the opportunity. Pointedly, Keith made sure to look away from Lance as they got out of the baths while he prayed that Lance did the same. The handmaid that brought Lance and Keith to the baths had told them to strip completely, something that made both Keith and Lance turn redder than Coran when he was frustrated. Keith definitely didn’t look at – study – Lance’s ass, nope, didn’t happen, not once. Keith also definitely didn’t think Lance had a nice ass, that was just absurd!

Keith quickly grabbed the towel that was held out to him and wrapped it around his waist securely. When Keith turned, he saw Lance standing there, watching him, with his own towel around his face. Almost too quickly, the both of them looked away from each other.

“The showers are this way, fated ones,” the handmaid said as she gestured towards a doorway to the right, “we also have a bath ready for after your shower so that you may relax together.”

“T-thanks,” Keith managed to sputter out as he and Lance followed her towards the showers.

The shower room was larger than any other Lance had seen before, excluding the communal showers in the gym at the garrison. The only problem with it was that, from where Lance stood, all the shower heads were fixed to point at the centre of the room. “Uh,” Lance began, “there’s only one shower?”

The handmaid smiled tightly, “of course, you are fated ones, you should do most things together.”

Lance wheezed as Keith stuttered out, “b-but, we don’t share beds, and then the mud bath—”

“We assumed if we had you sleep together at first, you would oppose the rest of our offers, as for the mud baths, we only have single tubs,” the handmaid explained.

Lance’s ears rang, mostly with the words “sleep together,” since he had blocked out the rest of what the handmaid said after that. Keith seemed to be equally as red as him when Lance looked over at him, his jaw gaping open. Before Lance could even protest the idea of showering with Keith, the handmaid left and closed the door behind her, making the shower heads turn on.

Keith, face redder than a strawberry, side-eyed Lance and said, “you face that wall,” he pointed to the left, “and I face this one.”

“Good, yeah,” Lance responded.

“Fine.”

“Yeah, fine.”

Robotically, the two of them turned away and faced their respective walls, neither of them making the move to disrobe, thankful that the towels could tie up securely.

For the first few minutes, Lance and Keith stood under the shower in respectful silence, both thankful that the shower was big enough for them to have a foot of distance between them, and then Keith said, “do you have any soap?”

Lance started to turn to face him, but then quickly looked away again as he caught a glimpse of Keith’s hair. “I,” he started as he looked around, spotting a small table with soaps in the corner of the shower. “Yeah, how much do you need?”

Keith looked down at his own body and muddy towel, “a lot.”

Lance nodded to himself and pulled the soap table almost between the two of them so that they didn’t have to turn around fully to grab anything. “Here, soap,” Lance said awkwardly.

“Thanks,” Keith replied as he grabbed one of the tubes, all of which were thankfully pre-opened, and squeezed some of the liquid into his hand before scrubbing his hair with it.

“Are you putting body soap in your hair?” Lance asked incredulously.

Keith paused, “yeah?” he asked, “it’s not like I can tell which is which, and soap is soap, it doesn’t matter where you clean with it.”

Lance nearly gasped, “do you use the body soap in the castle to wash your hair?!” Keith stiffened, knowing Lance wouldn’t like his answer. “You totally do, don’t you?!”

“So what if I do?” Keith asked stubbornly.

“Because you— WA!” Lance whipped around quickly, but slipped on the wet tile of the shower room floor. Lance’s foot shot out from underneath him and rocketed into Keith’s ankle, knocking Keith down with him. The motion made Lance stick out his arms as well, knocking over the table of soaps in a spectacular fashion. Lance fell onto his back with a loud _thud_ as the impact knocked the wind out of him. Keith toppled down onto lance, also on his back as he landed on Lance before rolling off of him and onto the wet floor.

Lance coughed violently as he tried to catch his breath while Keith tried to push himself off the floor, only to end up slipping again and face-planting into Lance’s chest. Lance groaned loudly as Keith pushed his hand against Lance’s stomach to try and lift himself up, one arm resting on it’s elbow by Lance’s head.

“What the hell, Lance?!” Keith yelled, unconsciously repositioning his hand further up onto Lance’s torso.

Lance jolted, “it’s not my fault!” he managed to wheeze out.

Keith sighed, closing his eyes as he hung his head. After a solid moment of silence, Keith opened his eyes and saw Lance looking directly at him. “W-what?” Keith asked nervously.

Lance immediately looked away, blushing furiously, “nothing! I was just thinking how stupid you look!”

“Hey!” Keith protested, but then shut up when he realized the position he was in. Half of Keith’s body was hovering over Lance, pinning him to the floor with his right arm and keeping him there with the left hand he had placed onto Lance’s chest. Keith definitely didn’t let himself think how solid Lance’s muscles were where his hand was, nope, didn’t happen. “Sorry,” Keith said as he jerked away from Lance. Once he was standing, Keith looked down awkwardly at Lance and held a hand out for him to help him stand. Lance took it.

**Author's Note:**

> I hope you like this, I'm not sure what to call this idea but I just started writing it the other day without thinking about it.  
> You can find me basically anyhwere @sixxon including tumblr, twitter, instagram, and snapchat


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